Locals recall encounters with Ted Kennedy

Ted Kennedy may have lived his life in the shadows of his big brothers, but he is being remembered as a charming and compassionate champion of social causes and a shrewd politician in his own right.

Kennedy, 77, who visited Iowa on several occasions to represent his family as well as to campaign for himself and others, died Tuesday after a 15-month battle with brain cancer.

To many who knew him, who campaigned for him or with him, his death marks the end of an era in American politics.

“He would have made a great president,” said Gertrude MacQueen of Iowa City, who said she was honored to be a part of Kennedy's 1980 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. “But don't ever think that the role he played in Senate wasn't one of the paramount ones of all time. It will be a long time before I find another one like that one.”

The youngest Kennedy “was the most gifted politically of anyone in that family,” added Peggy Whitworth, who has known Kennedy since her days working for former Sen. John Culver. “He's the last lion. We will not see his like in the Senate again.”

Kennedy's life was punctuated by tragedy – the assassinations of his brothers President John Kennedy and Sen. Robert Kennedy, a candidate for the Democratic nomination in 1968. But he rose above that “horrible beginning” - MacQueen's term for the drowning death of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquidick in 1969 – “and became an absolutely incredible senator.”

After he bowed out of the presidential race, “he really blazed a new trail for issues that were paramount to him – labor law, and health care,” said Steve Jackson Sr. of Cedar Rapids, who supported Kennedy's challenge to President Jimmy Carter in 1980.

Paul Deaton of rural Solon also caucused for Kennedy in 1980. He compared Kennedy's productivity for former Senate majority leader President Lyndon Johnson.

“They were much different personalities, but because of his tenure and position, he would get things done,” Deaton said.

Kennedy may be remembered for his personality as much as anything.

“There was magnetism about him” Whitworth recalled, conceding that she undoubtedly was influenced by a shared Irish-Catholic heritage. “I felt a kinship even though he wasn't a friend.”

Kennedy had the quality of successful politicians of listening in a way that “you felt like you had just talked to your friend,” Whitworth said.

MacQueen experienced Kennedy charm when visited the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics where she was an intensive care nurse. Doctors skeptical of Kennedy's ideas about health care reform were completely disarmed by his wit. And when the Secret Service nixed an impromptu visit to a Kennedy supporter in the ICU, the presidential hopeful wrote the man a note offering best wishes for a speedy recovery, she said.

Not all of his visits were purely political. In 1967, the first-term senator participated in the dedication of Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School. Kennedy, who said there was “no more fitting tribute” to his brother than to have a school named for him, was made an honorary lifetime member of the school's booster club.

Jackson, who introduced Kennedy at a 1979 debate at Regis High School, thought it ironic his death comes as Congress is debating health care reforms.

“It would be really great if we could get health care passed as a tribute to him,” Jackson said.

That debate would be different if Kennedy, who has been absent from the Senate, was present, Whitworth said.

“He's such a master - because of his personal style, his great, good humor - of gathering people who do not agree because of their ideology and getting them to talk to each other,” she said.

Kennedy's death reminded Jackson of all the “what if” questions he has about the Kennedy brothers. What of President Kennedy had not been assassinated? What if Bobby Kennedy had been elected president? What if Ted Kennedy had been elected president?

The answer is the same in each case: “It would have been a different world,” Jackson said.

As she reminisced about Kennedy, Whitworth said even the weather seemed affected by his death.

“It's appropriate it's a gray and heavy day because that's the way my heart feels,” Whitworth said.